The Mind of the Grave
by drich147
Summary: The Gravemind was a powerful being, one who has existed for billions of years, a being that heralded the coming Flood. Sent to another universe by a Precursor, he now attempts to survive in this new world.
1. Chapter 1

Though not technically a one shot, this isn't going to be updated too much, as it doesn't have Priority over my other stories.

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo, which belongs to 343 industries, nor do I own Warhammer 40k, which belongs to Games Workshop. Or at least I think it does.

(((H,W40k)))

Through time and space, he had existed.

His age extended into the hundreds of millions, and one did not live that long without being wise.

Through rock, metal and time he had lived, survived.

Thrived.

His knowledge, attained from a quadrillion beings throughout the universe, was unrivalled, unmatched and unchallenged.

Ever since his creation, he had remained unchanged. Or at least, his mind remained unchanged.

His physical form, all of it, was always subject to change.

Whenever he needed too, he changed, adapting with speed unrivalled, overpowering and overrunning all that came into his path.

When he met an enemy that it could not overpower, he consumed them.

He took their essence and added it to himself.

Their strengths became his strengths, their intelligence, his, all that was worth taking and becoming, he took and became.

Everything else was stored away; ready to be adapted should it become necessary.

He was an enemy that spared no quarter, one that took his enemies power and used it against them.

He had done this for uncountable millennia, before he met _Them_.

_They_ had done what it had long considered impossible.

_They_ had all but defeated it.

_They_ were the Precursors.

His age extended into the hundreds of millions, he was old and wise, knowledgeable and infinite.

And yet, he was but a child compared to them.

Time did not affect the Precursors, they were ageless.

Their species was the first species.

The first species to develop, to exist.

His power was _nothing_ compared to theirs.

They held the universe in their claws.

All of existence bent itself to accommodate their whims; infinite, unlimited power existed in them.

They had defeated him and transformed him.

His previous deadliness, reduced to an immobile powder.

He was gathered, sealed in glass, and then left on a ship.

And yet, his mind was preserved, undoubtedly due to them.

He did not know why.

It was only later on, almost 100,000 years later, when his prison was broken by the Precursors creations that he realized that he was being used as a test.

The Precursors creations, Humans, as they named themselves, exposed him to their pets, the Pheru.

The Pheru, as it turned out, proved to have malleable DNA that he could change.

It was just perfect for him. Too perfect, actually, he recognized the work of the Precursors, this species was created for him to change.

He mutated them, his form able to change the Pheru to a limited extent.

The Pheru attained growths, their behaviour changed from strictly vegetarian to feasting on the growths that sprung up, on the members of their own species.

They consumed, and he changed them more.

And so the cycle continued.

It took years, but he did it.

The Pheru turned and bit the Humans.

Across hundreds of worlds, Humans and Pheru alike mutated rapidly.

He struck quickly, debilitated billions, consumed millions.

Within a month, hundreds of worlds had fallen to him.

Time went by, and the Humans fought back.

They could not defeat him however, their strength was his.

Years went by, more worlds fell.

And then the Humans struck back.

Unknown to him, the Humans took one third of their remaining population, and infected them.

All he saw was that billions of humans were suddenly being poured into his territory, poured throughout the entirety of it.

Some 324 billion humans were consumed.

It took him 3 days to consume them all.

On the fourth day, the Virus activated.

And he _**Screamed**_.

The virus of the humans was ingenious.

His forms turned, letting of a physic signal of disruption, one that turned his forms against himself.

He did not miss the irony.

His trillion strong existences were suddenly almost gone.

So powerful was the virus, that even the DNA of each being suddenly attacked itself.

It unravelled, and it was only luck that saved his existence.

His mind fought, bringing a psychic shield to defend himself.

The disruption was unending however, in fact, if it were not for the fact that he sent his mind to the very edges of the galaxy, where a scant few forms existed, he too would have fallen.

A small fleet, laying on the edge of the galaxy, was suddenly all that was left of his entire existence.

He left the galaxy immediately.

The small fleet fled the galaxy at top speed, rushing away at over 2,000 light years a day.

The small fleet comprised of almost 80 ships, each of which were captured and infested carriers.

Each ship was 20 kilometres long, vaguely block shaped, large enough to support a fleet of over 400 ships.

However, 80 ships, in the long run, were nothing to the scale of the war against a tier 1 species like the Humans.

The Humans exodus fleets numbered in the millions, each.

The Humans had around 12 exodus fleets.

Such was the power of a tier 1 species.

Thousands of ships could be built in a day, per planet.

And the Humans territory encompassed uncountable thousands of star systems.

Still nothing compared to the Precursors, whose species spanned countless _galaxies_.

Nonetheless, the mere 80 carriers would do well enough it supporting his continued existence.

But perhaps, it wasn't such a good idea to keep all his eggs in one basket.

80 carriers could, and would, be annihilated, and if that happened, he would cease to exist.

He commanded, and the fleet divided.

70 carriers stayed where they were.

The other 10 carriers began moving away from the fleet, each in a different direction.

1 by 1, the carriers entered the slipstream, darting away to a location that nobody else could reach.

Once, he too had spanned galaxies.

The Precursors had long since purged him from those places however.

It was time that he started reclaiming his lost glory.

Each ship targeted a different galaxy, and they jumped away to their locations.

However, reaching even the closest galaxy would still take years, as they were millions of light-years away.

Just as the last carrier was preparing to jump into slipspace, he felt _it_.

Where there had once been nothing, now, there was something.

He directed the various sensors of the fleet to that location, and instantly knew what was there.

A Precursor ship.

The ship appeared for only a few seconds, directly above the carrier that had been about to leave, practically touching the hull.

The next second, both the ship and the carrier were gone, and he had no idea where either of them went.

It was strange however.

The connection he possessed to the ship did not weaken; in fact, it almost seemed to get stronger.

His mind dived through the connection, seeking to learn where the Precursors had taken it.

"_**Where is not important.**_"

What? The voice came from the edge of his conscious.

It was the voice of a Precursor.

"_**The ship is not in any location in this universe, I have moved it to another.**_"

He found the connection, and spoke to the voice.

'_To another universe? Why?_'

"_**Because I am interested. The universe that the ship now lies in is one of infinite war and death. I merely want to see how long you will survive in this place. The ship has already arrived. I have placed the ship near an unfortunate planet ripe for your taint. You must spread and consume if you wish to survive. I shall give you on piece of advice. Expect everything, rule out nothing, anything is possible in that place.**_"

"_**One last thing. Give me a good show would you.**_"

The Precursor laughed, a bone chilling horrifying sound that would have driven lesser beings insane.

He felt his consciousness change, dividing into parts, each the same as the original.

One part stayed with the fleet in this galaxy.

The other went with the carrier.

Both pondered on the Precursors motivations.

Both would get nowhere fast.

In the end, both chose to discard it, survival was more important than the machinations of a Precursor.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo, which belongs to 343 industries, nor do I own Warhammer 40k, which belongs to Games Workshop. Or at least I think it does.

A side note: When the Gravemind refers to his 'Extensions' or 'limbs', he is referring to individual Flood forms. He calls them such because, more or less, they are him, and he them.

(((H,W40K)))

Truly, the machinations of the Precursors extended further than he realized.

When the Precursor had moved him into this galaxy, he'd known that there was something simply _wrong_ with the solar system that he had arrived in.

At the first glance, the system appeared like any other, a large star nearly 800,000 km in diameter, and several planets of varying sizes. 3 planets were too small to support life, not to mention too close to the star itself for any life to exist there. The fourth planet was some 15,000 kilometres in diameter, not to mention being inside the stars habitable zone to boot, which made it a potential target for future terraformation.

The fifth planet was the planet that the Precursor had been referring to, though the planet itself was strange.

Strange in the fact that he recognized it.

The planet was so obvious in its appearance; any who looked upon it would be able to instantly recognize it as Erde-Tyrene, the birthplace of Humanity.

The system it appeared in was not the Sol system however; it was not the system of several planets, a few gas giants and a dwarf planet. It was a system of 3 dwarf planets, a larger star, 2 normal planets and 4 gas giants.

He had no idea why the Precursor would even bother with such a thing, beyond the irony of the birthplace of his defeaters becoming a cradle to him in this new galaxy.

A poetic sense of humour, such a shame that such a planet would now host his taint.

This, however, was not the thing that was so utterly _wrong_.

Physically, the system was as normal as one would expect.

However, beyond the physical, flitting about on the edge of his mind, a taint that was not his own existed.

Much like the slipstream, this taint did not exist in the material world. It existed in a place separate, but connected to that of reality, a flimsy barrier all that stood between these to existences.

The material world existed as ever, simply normal. Order prevailed.

This other world, _This Tainted, Corrupted Existence_, was the opposite. Chaos flowed and flitted, changing and corrupted, warping and turning, making and unmaking. Order did not exist in this strange world, one where the powers of existence were free to clash and bend. Time did not flow in this world, not acting like the ever diverging stream he knew it as, but instead a whirling maelstrom of chaos. Just as time, the fabrics and strings of space itself were torn asunder in this strange, chaotic world.

It was a warp of all existence, where all things changed and bent. For now, he would call it the Warp, for what other name could be so appropriate?

For some reason, he had a feeling that that was not all there was to the Warp, as if he was only seeing a part of all it was.

He paused his thoughts for a second.

His telepathic shield, the same one that he had brought up to escape the effects of that damnable Human virus, was being pressed upon.

He had not noticed this at first, preoccupied with his arrival into the universe. But now, after some time, he finally noticed the pressure on his mental shields.

It was a strange feeling, as previously, his only use of telepathy was to order his extensions, his countless limbs across the galaxy in the war with the Humans. Well, that and to communicate with those not of himself.

The pressure against his shield increased. It was still nowhere near to breaking, but it was a reminder of the presence that was attacking him.

He focussed on the presence, still attacking his shields, in an attempt to divine its location.

To his surprise, he found that the presence did not reside in the material world, but in the Warp. It was interesting that something would be able to survive in the Warp, but right now, that matter was not at hand.

He focussed a bit more, drawing on what little knowledge he possessed to stop the attack. At first, it did not go well, the presence drawing back and shifting, escaping his grasp. Perhaps this was the wrong way to go about it. He gathered his power, not focussing it to a point, simply letting it gather.

Immediately, the presence jumped towards his gathered power, attracted to it like a moth to a flame.

He grasped at the presence, catching it and dispersing it with a mental pulse that shattered its being.

Now that that annoyance was gone, it was time to turn his attention to the planet that the Precursor had oh so graciously left for him to consume.

In the dark expanse of space, engines lit up, illuminating the ship with its considerable glow. The ship began to move, quickly and quietly rushing forward, an act that had spelt the death of a thousand planets, for those unfortunate enough to become targets of the Flood.

The ship slowed down as it entered the planet's atmosphere, descending slowly to come to land on the surface, aiming towards a large patch of forest that would undoubtedly contain a large amount of creatures that he could consume, if only for raw biomass than anything else.

The forest was also next to a mountainous region, mainly for easy access to minerals and stone f they would need them for some reason. On top of this, the area was very secluded and it was very clouded in the surrounding skies, which, combined with the ships ability to cloak, would ensure that any natives would be entirely unaware of the Floods arrival.

The ship landed, and waves of Flood life forms disgorged from the ship in a seemingly hurried and unorganized fashion, even though it was anything but unorganized. Some forms went into the forest, others stayed behind and began cutting down trees in the surrounding area.

Immediately afterwards, tentacles from the ship detached themselves, falling towards the ground and digging into it slightly, morphing and changing to begin the first steps of a process to convert the planet into a more hospital area for the Flood.

The tentacles changed into a variety of different forms, some becoming bulbous sacs, which began to produce Flood spores and exhale them into the air. Others dug into the ground, clearing away dirt and stone, finally transforming into a pit on the ground, which began to secrete Flood acid and spores, pooling up for the dissolving of large amount of biomass.

Even though none of these were technically needed, it still helped to have them on a planet, as they could perform a dedicated function, which frees up mobile forms, not to mention a far easier time in reproduction and self-sufficiency. Though the budding colony was still a long way away from self-sufficiency, it was always best to lay the ground work for such a thing early in the process.

The super carrier that brought the Flood to the surface began to move again, this time taking off and exiting the atmosphere, holding position in orbit in case the Flood should need it later on.

The forms that had been previously sent out into the forest to hunt returned in waves, bringing in a variety of beasts of significantly large size for consumption.

The beasts were dumped into the acid pools, their bodies dissolving and transforming into raw biomass, a material that could quickly and easily be converted into anything the Gravemind desired from it. For now, the biomass was stored in another pool, simply waiting for use.

Meanwhile, the Flood forms also began dumping the cut down trees and other assorted plant life into the acid pools, not the ones where the bodies were being dumped, but a different variant of the same pools, which were made to deal with plant life.

Though the Flood could, and did, utilise everything, anything that was not already a useable form of biomass had to undergo a process to transform it into such, tree mulch, which was not an immediately useable form of biomass, had to undergo dissolving, the resulting materials where then broken down and reformed into a more useable form. Sometimes, this process must be repeated many times over before the final product is achieved.

In the case of raw elements, such as iron or other metals, the process took on a different level of complexity, which involved the breakdown of atoms into sub atomic particles, then rebuilding them into elements which made up biomass. That particular trick had been absorbed into the Flood many billions of years ago, from a species that had much the same ability, if less efficient, before they had the misfortune of being found by the Flood.

Though said species did not evolve this ability naturally, it had been gifted to them by a race preceding them. That species had also been absorbed into the Flood, and was fully responsible for easily 3 quarters of the Floods knowledge of genetic manipulation.

But these were times long past, a species long since removed from existence.

Now, the Flood put their knowledge to good use, to quickly convert the environment to their favour.

As the trees were dumped into the pools, the biomass held in the storages began to move on its own. A glob of biomass poured over the side walls, quickly gathering and shaping itself in a quadruped form. Taking the shape of a sphere, suspended by thin lines of flesh and bone between 4 legs spaced equally apart, it began to move towards the mountain. Once it reached the base of the mountain, it began to dig into the ground, changing shape to transform its legs into something resembling more of a spear crossed with a drill.

Once it dug into the ground, a small, but long, tentacle extended from the sphere, reaching out to three points on the ground that had not yet been filled. Meanwhile, a 4th tentacle extended from the sphere, which reached over to connect to the pool. Biomass began to drain from the pool as all 4 tentacles thickened and hardened, forming a seeming armour over the tentacles. Finally, the biomass drain stopped and the tentacle retracted into the sphere. At the same time, the four legs began to lengthen, becoming larger and denser, forming a shape similar to a hammer or pick axe. One of the tentacles began to change into something more resembling of a hose than a tool however. This tentacle began to spew acid at the mountain, seeping into the cracks and weakening the stone, making it brittle. The other 3 tentacles struck at the stone, causing large chunks to fall to the ground.

As this was going on, several flood forms began to move towards the fallen stones, picking them up and carrying them into the three connected acid pools, dumping them into the pools.

'_So far, the colony proceeds as planned. But, I sense a coming storm, something shall happen soon. I must be prepared for whatever it is._'

(((H,W40K)))

Within a vast, black, space, deep within a hidden maze that spanned both time and space, one created by the very fabrics of deceit and conspiracy, inhabited by those foolish enough to enter without its masters blessings, a dark being stood.

"**A change has occurred.**"

Tzeentch, the Changer of the Ways, the Master of Fortune, the Great Conspirator and the Architect of Fate, hovered in the air.

"**Something unexpected has happened.**"

Tzeentch sat on his thrown, looking over his plans, looking over the mortal world.

"**And something is blocking my sight of it.**"

Tzeentch turned around, staring into the material world, another attempt at scrying the change failing before it could even come into being.

"_**Do you honestly think that I will simply allow the change to be revealed?**_"

Tzeentch blinked. There was a figure standing in front of him, 5 meters tall and resembling nothing Tzeentch had seen before.

"**How did you get in here?**"

"_**I walked. Your maze is impressive, but I had mastered reality itself 8 billion years ago. Your maze had no hope of stalling me.**_"

Tzeentch knew that this being was telling the truth, made so obvious by the fact that he could sense the very primal forces of existence swirl around and bend to this beings will inside its body.

"**Why?**"

"_**Because I could, that's why.**_"

The being was gone.

No, that was too simple to describe it.

The being simply ceased to have ever been there at all.

Tzeentch knew that things were going to become very interesting with the intervention of this being.

Still, his plots and plans must be reworked, changes must be made and tactics adapted.

"**Very interesting indeed.**"

(((H,W40K)))


End file.
